Time perception

About: Time perception is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1918 publications have been published within this topic receiving 87020 citations.

Relationship between future time perspective and time estimation.

Abstract: Pioneer integration of future time perspective and time estimation was accomplished by Siegman (1961) . Taking the common assertion of time estimation theorists chat attractive goals beyond the interval to be judged cause overestimation, he took the similarly typical assumption of time perspective theorists that their measure taps psychological distance from important life goals and formed the hypothesis: the more extended the f u n ~ r e time perspective, che more will S overestimate the length of present temporal intervals, ocher motivational effeccs being held constant. Siegman found confirmation of his hypothesis with verbal estimates of 5, 15, and 25 sec. in a group of male Israeli army inductees. This srudy attempts to replicate Siegman's findings for a sample of American college students. In addition, it seeks to generalize the results to females, to longer intervals, and to a different method of time estimation. Ss were 20 male and 20 female stitdents enrolled in introductory psychology. Each S was tested individually in a repeated measures design involving four time estimates and a measure of future time perspective ( F T P ) developed by Wallace (1956). T h e four interval estimates were a verbal estimace of 12 sec. ( V E I Z ) , a proditction estimace of 20 sec. (PZO), a verbal estimate of 120 sec. (VElZO), and a production estimate of 200 sec. (P200).Qnchor and order effects, assessed in a counterbalanced design, were insignificant. The rank-order correlation of FTP with VE12 for males ( the condition most similar to Siegman's) was .63 ( p < . 01 ), while for P20 the correlation reached -31 ( 9 < . 05) . Since the production method indicates overestimation by a lower estimate, we have replicated Siegman's results and generalized to the alternative method. Neither the correlation of VE120 ( .02) nor that for P200 ( .24) approached significance. None of the estimates by females correlated significantly with FTP. As a matter of fact, all were in the opposite direction to that predicted, though not significantly so by our two-tailed tests. The results indicate that whatever accounts for the high correlation between short interval estimates (either method) and F T P in young males does not pro-

Probabilistic model of onset detection explains paradoxes in human time perception.

Abstract: A very basic computational model is proposed to explain two puzzling findings in the time perception literature. First, spontaneous motor actions are preceded by up to 1-2 s of preparatory activity (Kornhuber and Deecke, 1965). Yet, subjects are only consciously aware of about a quarter of a second of motor preparation (Libet, 1983). Why are they not aware of the early part of preparation? Second, psychophysical findings (Spence, 2001) support the principle of attention prior entry (Titchener, 1908), which states that attended stimuli are perceived faster than unattended stimuli. However, electrophysiological studies reported no or little corresponding temporal difference between the neural signals for attended and unattended stimuli (McDonald et al., 2005; Vibell et al., 2007). We suggest that the key to understanding these puzzling findings is to think of onset detection in probabilistic terms. The two apparently paradoxical phenomena are naturally predicted by our signal detection theoretic model.

Appreciation Contexts Modulate Aesthetic Evaluation and Perceived Duration of Pictures

Abstract: When looking at visual stimuli, context often easily affects elements of perception and cognition such as aesthetic evaluation, memory, and time perception. However, the relationships between aesthetic evaluation and time perception as influenced by context are not fully understood. This study’s aim was to examine whether context can influence not only aesthetic evaluation but also time perception. To achieve this, a temporal reproduction task was used. Participants viewed stimuli in either an art context or a realistic context . Identical affective pictures were presented in one of three durations (2500 ms, 4500 ms, or 6500 ms) and the participants reproduced their perceived viewing time for each picture. The pictures were rated as more pleasant when viewed in the art context compared to the realistic context . Additionally, the perceived duration of identical visual stimuli differed according to the particular context. Thus, contextual differences were found to be attributed to different operations of a switch within the internal clock. In sum, context can influence both aesthetic evaluation and time perception.

Perceiving Time Differences When You Should Not: Applying the El Greco Fallacy to Hypnotic Time Distortions

Abstract: The way we experience and estimate time – subjective time – does not systematically correspond to objective time (the physical duration of an event). Many factors can influence subjective time and lead to mental dilation or compression of objective time. The emotional valence of stimuli or the level of attention or expectancy are known to modulate subjective time although objective time is constant. Hypnosis too is known to alter people’s perception of time. However, it is not known whether hypnotic time distortions are intrinsic perceptual effects, based for example on the changing rate of an internal clock, or rather the result of a response to demand characteristics. Here we distinguished the theories using the logic of the El Greco fallacy. When participants initially had to compare the duration of two successive events —with the same duration — while in “trance”, they responded that the second event was on average longer than the first event. As both events were estimated in “trance”, if hypnosis impacted an internal clock, they should have been affected to the same extent. Conversely, when only the first event was in “trance”, there was no difference in perceived duration. The findings conform to an El Greco fallacy effect and challenge theories of hypnotic time distortion arguing that “trance” itself changes subjective time.

Movement Improves the Quality of Temporal Perception and Decision Making

Abstract: Recent evidence suggest that our experience of time is directly and intrinsically computed within the motor system. Accordingly, a variety of studies have demonstrated that concurrent movement impacts the estimate of temporal duration, such that perceived time is shifted towards the duration of movement. In order to investigate the role of the motor system, we tested human subjects (n=40) on a novel task combining reaching and time perception. In this task, subjects were required to move a robotic manipulandum to one of two physical locations to categorize a concurrently timed suprasecond auditory stimulus as “long” or “short”, relative to a running average criterion. Critically, subjects were divided into two groups: one in which movement during the interval was unrestricted and subjects could move freely to their choice, and one in which they were restrained from moving until the stimulus interval had elapsed. Our results revealed a higher degree of precision for subjects in the free-moving group. By further decomposing choice and response time data with a drift diffusion model of decision making, we identified the source of this change to a shift in the response threshold for free-moving subjects. Analysis of movement parameters revealed that eventual choice could be determined by movement parameters (e.g. trajectory, force) before the response was made, and even before the interval had elapsed, and that the variability of these movements was lower in the unrestrained group. A further experiment (n=14) verified that these findings were not due to proximity to the target, counting strategies, bias, or movement length. Our findings suggest that perceptual timing may be instantiated within the motor system as an ongoing readout of timing judgment and confidence.